Preparing a solid business strategy is the first step in developing a successful pitch.
See Also: How to Develop Useful Leadership Skills
Your next step is to determine what sets your company apart from the competition and makes it worthy of investment. Even if you have five pages of solid financial data and an in-depth analysis of how you compare to the competition across several different markets, you still won’t be able to cover everything.
As a rule, you will only have about 10 minutes to present your case when pitching to angel investors and venture capitalists for the first time. Here’s how to make the most of your brief presentation.
First: Make a presentation.
Make sure your pitch deck is well-organized and well-presented. Make sure your deck is user-friendly and inspires confidence in your firm among potential investors.
Because of this, you should prepare two versions of your pitch: a shorter one that you can deliver in 10 minutes, and a longer one that has all the information you plan to share with possible investors.
To get you started, we provide a free Pitch Deck Template for Powerpoint, and you can also view a library of more than 50 examples of Pitch Decks from other industries. We’ve compiled a list of resources that can assist you in creating a polished presentation for your pitch.
Secondly: Hone your sales speech.
Do some work on your sales pitch. If you can’t immediately address every facet of your organization, then the other suggestions above won’t help you much.
Far too many business owners believe they can convince others of the worth of their venture simply by explaining what it does. Even if your pitch falls flat, a great presentation deck full of eye-catching visuals will save the day. As a result, they show up unprepared to pitch meetings.
If you start a presentation by saying, “I only need 10 minutes of your time,” don’t be surprised if you end up babbling for 20 minutes before you’ve even gotten to slide 5. Invest in practice, streamline your messaging, and keep only what contributes to your company’s growth. Do not include any extraneous material.
Third: provide a narrative summary of the issue.
Start your presentation with a captivating narrative. Your pitch ought to speak directly to the issue that you’re helping to solve in the industry. Doing so will immediately pique the interest of your listeners. You should also add real data if you have conducted any tests.
If you can tailor your tale specifically to the investor, you’ll make a much greater impression. In what fields did they previously invest? Which problems have plagued their prior business endeavors? Find out as much as you can about the investor so that you can speak directly to their interests.
Fourth: Your Answer.
In this slide, explain how your product differs from others and how it will address the problem you identified in the previous slide.
Make it simple and straightforward so the investor can easily communicate it to others. If your investors aren’t already familiar with your field, it’s best not to use jargon. If you’ve done any testing ahead of time, including those results here to bolster the validity of your solution.
Fifth: Include Who you’re trying to reach.
Even if it’s possible that everyone in the globe could become your customer base, you shouldn’t make that claim.
The Target Audience, the Potential Customer Base, and the Ultimately Satisfied Customer Base are all important to consider as you develop your product. Both your audience and you will be impressed by your strategic planning skills after this.
Create a user persona, often called an ideal customer, to represent your target audience. This shows that you’ve given serious consideration to the type of clientele your firm will attract and is targeting. It’s also a lot simpler to make a brief pitch to a specific individual rather than a large group.
And that is how you create a successful pitch!
